Despite a plea from Denver Public Schools district athletic director Karen Higel, the state’s football committee will recommend a realignment proposal that will disband the Denver Prep League.

Under the proposal, which will be recommended for ratification at CHSAA’s legislative council meeting on January 19, the former DPL schools will split among six separate leagues across three classifications, eliminating a football league that has been around in some fashion since 1901.

Higel opposed the realignment, saying it would put financial stress on her schools.

Denver East could wind up as one of the two Class 5A holders from the Denver Prep League.

There’s a sweeping change to the latest draft of the proposed football classification and league alignment — and it has nothing to do with all the commotion surrounding Valor Christian.

According to a copy of the draft obtained by The Denver Post, the Denver Prep League will cease to exist in football for the 2012-14 cycle. Instead of the proposed seven-team league — which had Kennedy leaping from 3A to 5A — only Lincoln and Denver East will remain in 5A, and those two schools won’t even be in the same conference.

Lincoln will become the sixth team in the East Metro league, joining Brighton, Northglenn, Prairie View, Thornton and Westminster. Denver East will join the Aurora league with Adams City, Aurora Central, Gateway and Hinkley and Rangeview.

George Washington, Montbello, Denver South and Kennedy will each move to 4A, while Thomas Jefferson will drop down to 3A.

Remember: Wild Card points are used as the lone criteria in determining the 5A (32 teams) and 4A (16 teams) brackets, though actual seeding may vary.

In 3A, the top seven seeds will come from the conference champion, and the No. 8 seed will be the highest ranked team (based on Wild Card points) that’s not a conference champion. The remaining eight qualifiers will come from Wild Card points, but seeded by a committee. Seeds Nos. 1-7 will also be determined by the committee.

In 2A, the top two teams from each conference automatically qualify (12 of the 16-team field), and the four remaining spots go to non-automatic qualifying teams who rank the highest in the Wild Card points standings. (A committee of administrators will then seed the field.)

Links to this week’s Wild Card point standings after Week 7, as released by CHSAA: Class 5A, 4A, 3A, 2A.

Remember: Wild Card points are used as the lone criteria in determining the 5A (32 teams) and 4A (16 teams) brackets, though actual seeding may vary.

In 3A, the top seven seeds will come from the conference champion, and the No. 8 seed will be the highest ranked team (based on Wild Card points) that’s not a conference champion. The remaining eight qualifiers will come from Wild Card points, but seeded by a committee. Seeds Nos. 1-7 will also be determined by the committee.

In 2A, the top two teams from each conference automatically qualify (12 of the 16-team field), and the four remaining spots go to non-automatic qualifying teams who rank the highest in the Wild Card points standings. (A committee of administrators will then seed the field.)

How’s this for juxtaposition? Just as the finishing touches are being put on Cañon City’s new track and lights at Citizens’ Stadium, there are serious doubts that Florence High School will play any home games at Husky Stadium this season.

The two schools, which are separated by roughly 10 miles, or 20 minutes, are heading opposite ways in terms of facilities.

Cañon City, a 3A football school, is slated to receive 32 new lights for the field today, set to be installed in time for the fall sports season. Two weeks from now, the paving on a new track should be finished.

“Annie Kunz was a player I had to double-team just to slow her down, and she still scored two goals and recorded an assist against us,” Alameda coach Sean Stephans said. “It was my sense that if she wanted to take over a game, then there would be very little we would be able to do to stop her.”

She’s committed to Texas A&M, where she’ll run track in addition to playing soccer. (Kunz is a state champion in the hurdles and high jump.)

Neil Devlin, originally from the Philadelphia area, has covered high school sports in Colorado for more than 30 years, writing about the people, athletes and events that encompass the Rocky Mountain prep sports world.